Hallelujah revisited...

Before I even begin to wander through the malaise of claims and counter-claims surrounding the shootings in Tucson, Arizona this morning, because I feel compelled to be cautious in condemnation, slow to commit judgment and unswerving in my belief that despite all that horror that took place near a Safeway Store, I must be true to myself. Leonard Cohen is perhaps one person who has had the most influence on how and when I developed my philosophy of life. The first time I heard him sing Suzanne live in New York I knew I had found a mentor, a spiritual guide who could help me unravel all the internal anger and confusion of my youth.

But this morning, as Arizona's Representative Gabrielle Giffords fights for her life in a hospital bed, even that song cannot reach past the outrage I feel at what Jared Loughner did in his act of anger and violence, who indiscriminately killed six people including an innocent child, perhaps Mr. Cohen's song that most-strongly reaches into my psyche is “Hallelujah”, here performed at Helsinki.

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

At this ungodly hour of the morning, although I cannot cry for the faceless dead, the injured dwelling in hospital beds crying out in their pain, all I can say is Hallelujah and thank Leonard Cohen for setting my philosophy straight just one time more.

It is time we learn that words have power, and that they can destroy as easily as they uplift our souls.